Angkor Wat

On our second full day in Siem Reap, we were out the door at 5 am to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat.

We entered the back way which was nice. It made us feel like we were the only ones there...

...until we got to the front and met up with 1,000 of our closest friends ;)

We picked a spot away from the main crowd and watched the sunrise. Toby wins the prize for best sunrise photos.

No more pictures...

After the sun rose we went around the side of the temple to get away from the crowds. Our guide did a great job making us feel like we were with only a handful of people at the temple.

Here are some of the images carved into the temple walls. This temple was dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu so there are a lot of pictures of him.

After examining the carvings we toured around the inside of the magnificent temple.

More stairs (but these we were not allowed to climb).

More temple dancers.

Just hanging out at Angkor Wat watching the sunrise. What did you do today? :)

Anastasia found a friend: our guide Boon Chai

Anastasia was a little shy and upset as various tourists stopped to say how cute she was and try and touch her. I would probably look the same way if a bunch of women started to grab my arms.

Here is Elyse running and jumping her way around the temple.

This is the view from the main entrance.

The temple was impressive. It was huge and a feat of engineering (aren't engineers cool?). The detail that went into the carving was also amazing.

After the temple tour (it was only 7:30 am) we headed to a place where you could feed some elephants. As we were waiting I noticed a guy with a big ice block in the back of his truck. He cut up smaller blocks and handed them out. This guys was taking one on his motorcycle. I hope he didn't have to go far.

When the elephants arrived our guide bought some bananas and we began to feed them. Elyse did a good job.

Although Anastasia loved seeing the elephants from afar, she was not about to feed them.

After the elephants, we went back to the hotel, swam, napped and then went off to our next adventure in the afternoon- a tuk tuk ride to a nearby village.